A Cobbler's Tale Read online

  He folded the papers and replaced them in his jacket pocket. The congregation murmured. Moshe looked up and smiled.

  “It seems I forgot my glasses. But not to worry, the words do not come from here,” he said, patting the pocket where he just slipped in his written speech. “They come from here,” he added, placing his palm over his heart.

  Sounds of approval rippled through the riveted assembly.

  “We have come a long way,” he began, catching the warm faces of Mendel and Shmuel sitting a few rows back.

  “We have been blessed to have known two remarkable people in Pincus and Clara Potasznik, Mom and Dad. I’m sure many of you have heard about some of their exciting adventures. But there is one story I want to share with you today, and that is the only story that matters in the end—the story of their love.

  “Of all the many things our parents taught me and my brother and sisters, the most important is that love is the light that triumphs over darkness. Their amazing lives have provided us with numerous examples of overcoming hardships and great loss with the power of love. Even with their last actions, they show us once again what love means.” Moshe paused to look over to the caskets sitting side by side.

  “It should not surprise anyone who knew my parents that one could not remain without the other. The power of their love would not permit the separation of their souls.”

  Moshe looked out again and saw many tears flowing. He closed his eyes and opened his palms out to the congregation.

  “I feel you, they feel you. Your blessings comfort them as the pass on.”

  Later that day, with the burials completed and the mourners gone, Moshe stood with Shmuel at the two mounds of fresh earth forming the graves.

  “So Jakob finally has company,” said Shmuel.

  “He’s been alone for over twenty years.” Moshe sighed, looking at the small pile of rocks on top of Jakob’s tombstone and the fresh flowers placed on the grass before it.

  “I guess she still visits him,” Shmuel said.

  “Nita comes every Sunday. We probably just missed her.”

  CHAPTER 88

  THE ADVENTURES OF PINCUS AND CLARA

  Moshe’s six grandchildren gathered around him, waiting to hear once more about the exciting adventures of Pincus and Clara.

  He began the story by telling of Rabbi Shapira asking Pincus to travel to America.

  “The great wise rabbi with a long white beard told Pincus to start the Landsman Society of Krzywcza. He told Pincus to help bring the Jews from our little shtetl to the New World,” Moshe said proudly.

  He described the day that Pincus said goodbye to Clara, who was pregnant with Anna, and how he traveled alone on a grand steamship called the SS Amerika.

  “The North Sea is very rough and windy. The ship bounced around like a leaf on the sea. Pincus got seasick and was rescued by a man named Jakob Adler, who became his best friend and business partner.”

  The children sat mesmerized, even though they had heard the same story told exactly the same way many times before.

  He described where his parents had lived on the Lower East Side. The streets were made of cobblestones. People bought fruits, vegetables, and breads from pushcarts. Children ran through the streets only speaking Yiddish.

  “Pincus and Jakob had the finest cobbler shop on Delancey Street. They made a lot of money, and when they had enough they bought tickets on a steamship to come back home to Poland and rescue us from the war.”

  The children loved the part about the Prince of Prussia who helped Pincus and Jakob travel through the battlefields.

  “Once we got lost in a forest. A band of Jewish soldiers found us and gave us food and water and led us back to the German border,” he told the children.

  They couldn’t wait to hear about the steamship Bergensfjord.

  “Because your great-grandfather Pincus was a wealthy man, we traveled in a first-class cabin, very fancy. When we reached America, we gathered on the top deck of the ship and stood at the railing. All of us standing side by side, and what did we see?” He asked the children.

  In unison the children replied loudly, “The Statue of Liberty.”

  With Leah in the kitchen preparing lunch for the grandchildren, Moshe thought he would add something new to the story.

  “You know, children, there is a part of the adventures of Pincus and Clara I never told you about.”

  They quickly sat back down, curious what their grandfather would say.

  “Have you ever heard the term soul mate?”

  The children shook their heads in unison, which made Moshe smile.

  “You remember that I told you Clara died from pneumonia on a Friday and the very next day Pincus died of a broken heart. That was because they were soul mates, and Pincus could not allow their souls to be separated. It is said that when two souls find each other, they are bound together for eternity. This is what a soul mate is. One day each of you will find a soul mate of your own. Someone to love and have a family with.”

  The children sat in silence.

  He continued, “Did I ever tell you what my grandfather, Scheindl the cobbler, used to say?”

  Again, the children shook their heads.

  “He said that the best way to understand the soul of a man. . . .” He paused to place his hand over his heart, “. . . is by examining his sole,” he said, pointing to his shoe.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The inspiration for A Cobbler’s Tale was drawn from the true story of my great-grandparents, Pincus and Clara Rubenfeld, and their son Moshe, my grandfather. Even though their actual story is not as dramatic as this fiction, Clara and the children did survive the bloody battles of World War I before Pincus came back for them in 1920.

  While Moshe Rubenfeld was not a tzaddik, he did have a unique ability to bring joy to his children, grandchildren, friends, and the many people he interacted with in his fruit and vegetable store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Neil Perry Gordon grew up in the village of Monsey, a suburb of New York City, and still lives today not far from his childhood home. His joy of art and fiction writing was kindled during his education at the Green Meadow Waldorf School.

  He has written two trade books, The Designer’s Coach and An Architect’s Guide to Engineered Shading Solutions. Both books, as well as many trade articles, have been well received and have affirmed Neil’s expertise in the window covering industry.

  A Cobbler’s Tale is Neil’s first novel and is based loosely on the story of his great-grandparents’ immigration to the Lower East Side.